Best Of
Re: Does reading about spirituality make any sense?
@Jeroen said:
@marcitko said:
However, I've never heard of someone finding what they were looking for from books.I’m coming to think that when you search via books, eventually the search collapses under its own weight. Your mind just accumulates so many phrases of wisdom that no more will go in, and you need to go through a phase of slimming down, making room.
Not sure if this framing makes sense to you or not, but this is the way I think of it. Its like watering a plant, you can keep pouring water in but it needs time to soak in to the soil and be absorbed by the plant.
person
Re: Does reading about spirituality make any sense?
Reading about spirituality is an intellectual pursuit. It is good to know about spirituality, but it only is an explanation of or description of spirituality.
It is comparable to reading about eating a cake, experiencing the taste and qualities of a cake. You can explore what goes into the cake, what the texture and flavor of the cake are. But only by taking a bite of the cake will you actually know how it tastes,the experience all the nuances. All else is hypothesis or theory.
No, there is nothing wrong in reading about spirituality. But the application, the witnessing of, the practice of, the living in spirituality comprise the avenue(s) to understand Spirituality.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Does reading about spirituality make any sense?
I understand reading about spirituality as a complement to non-intellectual practices, such as meditation. I agree that reading alone, relying solely on verbal and intellectual expression, would be limiting. But I have read things that, paradoxically, have allowed me to see beyond the conceptual (even if only momentarily). I believe I have had as many, or even more, insights from reading than from meditating.
Rodrigo
Re: What documentary are you watching?
At 55 minutes long I think this qualifies as a documentary. I know almost nothing about coding, but I found this story captivating. A post hoc analysis of an almost globally catastrophic hack to the linux system. For those who do understand coding ( @linc @Iobster ) I imagine this would be very interesting.
person
Re: The Plant Medicine Path
It was a very interesting piece, from what I recall. Pollan basically said caffeine was an ideal factory workers drug, because it is a significant stimulant and heightens concentration, and he speculates that is why it has remained unregulated — it is beneficial to the economy. He talks about the history of the coffee break, which was successfully negotiated by unions as being necessary for the long working day. Pollan says that after three months of complete abstinence, his first coffee was “like a psychedelic experience”.
Jeroen
Re: Cherishing and protecting one’s joy
Cherishing and protecting one’s joy
Joy is like a flowing stream: it remains fresh while it moves, but stagnates the moment we try to trap it.
Joy and sorrow come and go; they are part of the natural fluctuation of life’s flow.
Shoshin1
Re: Cherishing and protecting one’s joy
@Jeffrey said:
From my understanding having joy in our daily life is a good sign and keep doing things that bring joy in balance with hearing, contemplating, meditation.
Yes, that is so. Generally advanced practitioners are happy people, so if you feel you are losing your joy, you have probably taken a wrong turn somewhere on the path. For me it feels like perhaps I have let go of things that were not meant… I am losing joy in things that I have always felt were joyful, like observing the sunrise.
When interests get obsessive then the joy goes away right? There's still a physical feeling but it's out of harmony I guess.
From what I remember of my time of obsessively playing games, you are correct, the joy turns into a compulsive feeling.
But daily awareness can have: nature walks, sex (for lay person), reading, movies, performances, etc
I considered whether to go view more movies, but I think movies are less food for the soul than books. The being who is watching the movie is less involved in the act of inner creation, than someone who is reading the book of the same story. Movies can be more surprising, more awe inspiring, but they are also more passive.
Jeroen
Cherishing and protecting one’s joy
Over the last ten years I have done a lot of letting go: news, television, novels, computer games. Recently though I was considering many of these things were distractions from the spiritual path, but they also lent my life a joyful quality, and I found I was losing my joy in life. Many things that used to give me joy, were now appearing as merely neutral. Even my morning coffee is no longer the joy it once was.
The process of letting go eventually leads one to live a life that is lean and devoid of the juicier aspects of lay life. For example, for a long time I read The Lord of the Rings every year, and I used to take great pleasure in that book, which Tolkien intended as a mythology for our times. So it now appears to me that being too drastic in letting go is also a danger on the path — we don’t have to live as monastics, even though our tendencies may take us in that direction.
I find it interesting, that when I was focussed on Buddhism all these things disappeared from my life, and now I am finding my life is too lean, and I’m seeing the need to cherish and protect the things that give me joy. That doesn’t mean I will go back to computer games, I think there are too many negatives to that, but I may broaden my reading somewhat, for starters.
Also I thought it useful to pay more attention to what gives me joy. One thing I noticed was that I feel more joyful when I am not thinking, like when I am focussed on my breath, or when I am riding my bicycle and am too engrossed in the feel of my tires on the path. When I’m busy being in the moment.
Jeroen
Re: Does reading about spirituality make any sense?
I think engaging with the words and speech of wise, compassionate people does have some influence on our minds.
However, teachings and words are the finger pointing to the moon and its important to engage in practice so they are able to actually get us to the destination.
person
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Today - 8th of March - is International Women’s Day.
Jeroen